In life it is hard to know what is best. Having something wonderful and losing it, or never having had it in the first place? That is how I view the situation between the older West Ham fans who experienced the tremendous atmosphere created at so many West Ham games of the late sixties to the early eighties, compared to the younger generation of fans who support our team in what for most, has become a sterile Upton Park. Yes, “Bubbles” is sung at the start of each half and even sometimes towards the end of the game if we are winning. The occasional piece of banter that might get chanted often gets a laugh but to be honest for most of today’s games at the Boleyn the matches are played in near silence. The ground is empty, half an hour before kick off and still half empty ten minutes prior.
Compare that to “Ray the Hammers” excellent post recently, reminiscing his experiences as a North Bank lad in the seventies. They were near exact to mine although I had been enjoying the adrenalin ride since the sixties. Going to football back in those days meant you needed to be in the ground at least two hours before kick off if you were a kid, and at least one hour for an adult. On many occasions the turnstiles would be closed an hour before kick off as the ground capacity had been reached. So what did you do for an hour or more before kick off? Read the match day program, eat your monkey nuts and SING! Yes, a lot of the singing used bad language and some of it was very offensive to the opposition and its fans. There was certainly no political correctness in this era! But the atmosphere at Upton Park during this halcyon period between about 1968 and the early eighties was like a drug. And you just had to keep going back for more. The “Knees up Mother Brown”, the “I hear the sound, of distant bums, over there, over there”, the “we hate Nottingham Forest” and even the moronic “You’re going to get your f..ing heads kicked in” were just a few of the songs and chants that got the blood racing through your veins.
Was going to football in those days comfortable? No. Was it safe? Not completely. Was it bloody intimidating? You bet it was. And do I miss it? Like nothing I could explain to you. The downside was obviously the occasional outbreaks of violence, but generally you could avoid it by just steering clear. I heard Manchester United and Chelsea fans invaded the North Bank in the mid sixties, but in all my time of going since 1967 I can never remember opposition fans in that part of the ground. The North Bank was very safe for the kids despite its reputation.
I am making my way back to the UK shortly and will be there for the Liverpool game. I will walk up to my prepaid seat ten minutes before kick off with a cup of tea. We will sing “Bubbles” at the start of the game and for the remainder we will watch the game whilst wondering why the away team support is singing and we are not. We might get to sing Bubbles once or twice during the evening and heaven forbid, should we win the silence may be broken. Funnily enough, it will still be one of the highlights of my holiday. But it won’t be the same. I doubt it ever will be.
It is not just West Ham though. The same sterile atmosphere is polluting just about all Premier League grounds. And as I sip my tea before the start of the Liverpool game, my mind will race back to that wonderful day when we beat Aston Villa in the 1980 Cup quarter final. Just one of the many matches where the West Ham crowd really was the 12th man.
Footnote: This will be my last article for WHTID until late October. COYI.